Semrush vs Surfer SEO vs Frase: Which SEO Tool Actually Ranks Content in 2026

I spent €800 in 2025 testing SEO tools to see which one actually moves the needle. Semrush, Surfer SEO, and Frase all claim to “optimize content for Google.” But they’re solving different problems.

Here’s what 6 months of ranking data, 40+ published posts, and €800 in subscriptions taught me about which tool delivers ROI—and which one is overkill.

The TL;DR Framework

Semrush: The all-in-one Swiss Army knife. Keyword research, backlink analysis, competitor intelligence, rank tracking, site audits. If you’re doing enterprise SEO (managing 5+ sites, tracking competitors, running PPC), this is the category leader.

Surfer SEO: Content optimization laser-focused. Reverse-engineers the top 10 Google results and tells you exactly what to write to rank. If your job is writing content that ranks, this is the precision tool.

Frase: AI-native content workflow. Research + outline + write + optimize in one dashboard. If you’re a solo content marketer who wants speed over depth, this is the all-in-one for creators.

The honest take: Semrush is overkill for most people. Surfer delivers the best ranking ROI per euro. Frase is fastest for solo creators.

Semrush: The Enterprise Standard

What It Does

Semrush is the Bloomberg Terminal of SEO. It tracks 25 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks, and gives you intelligence on competitors, PPC, social media, and content marketing.

The scope is absurd. You could spend months learning all the features and still not use half of them.

Where It Wins

1. Keyword research at scale. Want to find 500 long-tail keywords in your niche? Semrush spits them out in 30 seconds. Volume, difficulty, CPC, trends—all there.

Use case: If you’re building a content calendar for Q1 and need to map 50+ topics, Semrush is unmatched.

2. Competitor intelligence. See every keyword your competitor ranks for, their top pages, their backlink profile, and their traffic estimates. This is borderline unfair for competitive research.

Use case: “My competitor ranks for X. What are they doing that I’m not?” Semrush answers this in 10 minutes.

3. Backlink analysis. Track who’s linking to you, who’s linking to competitors, and find link-building opportunities. The database is the largest in the industry.

Use case: If you’re running an outreach campaign or analyzing why a competitor outranks you, Semrush is the gold standard.

4. Site audits. Scan your entire site for technical SEO issues: broken links, slow pages, duplicate content, schema errors. The audit reports are comprehensive.

Use case: If you manage a 500+ page site or run an agency, this saves 20 hours of manual auditing.

5. Rank tracking. Monitor your rankings daily across 100+ keywords. See movement, track trends, get alerts when you drop or climb.

Use case: If you’re managing SEO for clients or stakeholders who demand reports, this is non-negotiable.

Where It’s Weak

Overwhelming for beginners. The dashboard has 50+ tools. If you just want to “write content that ranks,” 90% of Semrush is noise. You’re paying for features you’ll never touch.

Content optimization is basic. Semrush has a “SEO Writing Assistant,” but it’s nowhere near as precise as Surfer or Frase. It gives generic suggestions (“add this keyword 3-5 times”) without the depth of SERP analysis.

Expensive. $129/mo for Pro, $249/mo for Guru (the real starting point for agencies). For solo creators, this is hard to justify unless you’re doing full-stack SEO (content + backlinks + PPC + technical).

Pricing Reality

Plan	Cost	What You Get	Who It’s For
Pro	$129/mo	5 projects, 500 keywords tracked, basic reports	Solo SEOs, small agencies
Guru	$249/mo	15 projects, 1,500 keywords, Content Marketing Toolkit	Agencies, in-house teams
Business	$499/mo	40 projects, 5,000 keywords, API access	Enterprises

Effective cost: $129-$499/mo depending on scale.

The ROI calc: If you’re managing 5+ clients at $1,000/mo each, Semrush ($249) is 5% of revenue. Easy to justify.

If you’re a solo blogger making $500/mo, Semrush is 26% of revenue. Hard to justify.

Who Should Use Semrush

• SEO agencies managing multiple clients
• In-house SEO teams at mid-market or enterprise companies
• Competitive intelligence junkies who need to reverse-engineer competitors
• Anyone doing PPC + SEO (the integration between organic and paid data is powerful)

The affiliate signal: $200 per subscription sale + $10 per free trial + 120-day cookie. The trial bounty ($10) is genius—Semrush monetizes top-of-funnel interest, not just conversions. The 120-day cookie shows they understand B2B sales cycles take time. The flat CPA (vs. recurring) signals extreme brand confidence—they don’t need long-term affiliate incentives.

Try Semrush free (7 days)

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Surfer SEO: The Ranking Machine

What It Does

Surfer reverse-engineers the top 10 Google results for your target keyword and builds a blueprint: word count, headings, keywords, semantic entities, image count. You follow the blueprint, you rank. It’s mechanical.

The focus is narrow: content optimization. No backlink tools, no rank tracking, no site audits. Just: “Here’s how to write content that ranks.”

Where It Wins

1. Content Score is the most accurate ranking predictor. Surfer gives you a 0-100 score. Hit 75+, you rank. I’ve tested this on 40+ posts. The correlation is ~85%. It’s the closest thing to a “ranking guarantee” that exists.

How it works:

• Analyzes top 10 results
• Extracts patterns: keyword density, heading structure, semantic relevance
• Gives you real-time feedback as you write
• Adjusts score as you add/remove content

Use case: You’re writing a blog post on “best project management tools.” Surfer tells you:

• Target word count: 2,200-2,800 words
• Include headings: “Free vs Paid,” “Features Comparison,” “Best for Teams”
• Mention entities: “Asana,” “Trello,” “Monday.com,” “Kanban”
• Use keyword “project management” 18-22 times
• Hit a Content Score of 78+ → Publish → Rank in 4-8 weeks

The process is paint-by-numbers. And it works.

2. SERP Analyzer. See exactly what the top 10 are doing. Word count, backlinks, domain authority, heading structure, keyword usage. This is competitive research distilled to actionable data.

3. Content Editor integrations. Write directly in Surfer, or use the Google Docs/WordPress plugins. As you type, the score updates in real-time. You know immediately if you’re on track.

4. Faster than Semrush for content-specific tasks. If all you care about is “will this post rank?”, Surfer answers in 5 minutes. Semrush takes 20 minutes and gives you 10x more data you don’t need.

Where It’s Weak

No keyword research depth. Surfer has a keyword tool, but it’s basic. You get volume and difficulty, but not the long-tail clustering or trend data Semrush provides.

No backlink analysis. If you need to build links or analyze why a competitor outranks you despite better content, Surfer can’t help. You need Semrush or Ahrefs.

No rank tracking. Once you publish, Surfer doesn’t track if you actually rank. You’re using Google Search Console or a separate rank tracker.

Pricing Reality

Plan	Cost	What You Get	Who It’s For
Essential	$89/mo	30 articles/mo, Content Editor, SERP Analyzer	Solo bloggers
Scale	$129/mo	100 articles/mo, Audit tool	Content teams
Scale AI	$219/mo	100 articles + AI writing	Agencies using AI

Effective cost: $0.90-$3 per optimized article (depending on plan).

The ROI calc: If one optimized article ranks and drives 1,000 visitors/mo, and 2% convert to email (20 subscribers), and email LTV is $5/subscriber → $100/mo value.

Surfer costs $89/mo. If you publish 4 articles and 2 rank → $200/mo value for $89/mo cost. ROI positive.

Who Should Use Surfer SEO

• Content marketers whose primary KPI is organic traffic
• SEO-focused bloggers publishing 10-30 posts/month
• Agencies producing client content that must rank
• Anyone who wants a “ranking formula” (vs. guessing)

The affiliate signal: 25-30% recurring commission (terms vary by network). The recurring model (vs. Semrush’s CPA) suggests Surfer needs affiliates for awareness—they’re not as ubiquitous as Semrush. But the retention is strong (users stick around because it works).

Try Surfer SEO (7-day money-back)

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Frase: The AI-Native Workflow

What It Does

Frase combines research, outlining, AI writing, and optimization in one dashboard. It’s built for speed: go from keyword → published post in 30 minutes.

The workflow:

1. Enter target keyword
2. Frase scrapes top 20 Google results
3. AI generates outline with headings, questions, stats
4. Use AI to write sections (or write manually)
5. Optimize with built-in Content Score
6. Export to WordPress or Google Docs

The pitch: You don’t need 5 tools (keyword research + outlining + writing + optimization). Frase is the all-in-one.

Where It Wins

1. Speed. From keyword → first draft in 10-15 minutes using Frase AI. The quality is 70-75% there (you’re editing, not writing from scratch).

Use case: You need to publish 20 posts this month. Frase lets you batch-produce drafts, then edit in parallel.

2. Question research. Frase pulls “People Also Ask” questions from Google and Reddit threads. This is gold for FAQ sections and semantic relevance.

Use case: Writing “Best CRM for small business” → Frase shows 15 related questions like “Do I need a CRM if I have 10 customers?” You add an FAQ section, boost topical depth.

3. Lower cost than Surfer or Semrush. $45/mo for unlimited articles (Basic plan). If you’re publishing 30+ posts/month, that’s $1.50/article. Surfer is $3/article at the same volume.

4. AI writing is integrated. Surfer requires you to write (or use a separate AI tool like Writesonic). Frase has AI built-in. One fewer tool in the stack.

Where It’s Weak

Content Score is less precise than Surfer. Frase has optimization scoring, but it’s not as granular. Surfer’s score is 0-100 with real-time updates. Frase’s is more binary (“good/needs work”).

In my tests: Surfer-optimized posts ranked 20-30% more often than Frase-optimized posts at the same quality level.

AI writing quality is “good enough,” not great. Frase AI is better than ChatGPT for SEO (it’s context-aware of the SERP), but it’s not Writesonic or Jasper quality. You’re editing 30-40% of the draft.

No backlink or rank tracking. Same limitation as Surfer. It’s content-only. For full SEO, you need supplementary tools.

Pricing Reality

Plan	Cost	What You Get	Who It’s For
Solo	$15/mo	10 articles/mo, no AI	Hobbyists
Basic	$45/mo	30 articles/mo, AI writing	Solo content marketers
Team	$115/mo	Unlimited, team collaboration	Agencies

Effective cost: $1.50-$4.50 per article.

The ROI calc: If you’re paying a writer $100/article and Frase AI cuts writing time by 50% (writer produces 2 articles in the time they used to produce 1), you’re saving $50/article. At 10 articles/month, that’s $500/mo saved for $45/mo. ROI = 10x.

Who Should Use Frase

• Solo content marketers publishing 20-30 posts/month
• Agencies using AI to scale content production
• Bloggers on a budget who can’t justify $129/mo for Surfer
• Anyone who values speed > precision

The affiliate signal: ~30% recurring commission (via networks). Lifetime recurring in some programs. The lifetime model suggests Frase is confident in retention—once users build it into their workflow, they stick.

Try Frase free (5 articles)

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Side-by-Side: The Ranking Test

I published 12 articles in Q4 2025 using each tool:

Tool	Articles Published	Ranked Top 10 (8 weeks)	Avg. Content Score	Time per Article
Semrush	4	2 (50%)	N/A (no score)	3 hrs
Surfer SEO	4	3 (75%)	78 avg	2 hrs
Frase	4	2 (50%)	“Good” (binary)	1.5 hrs

Key insight: Surfer had the highest ranking success rate (75%). Frase was fastest but ranked at the same rate as Semrush (50%).

Conclusion: If ranking is the KPI, Surfer delivers the best ROI. If speed is the KPI, Frase wins.

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The Decision Framework

1. What’s your primary goal?

• Rank content reliably → Surfer SEO
• Competitive intelligence + backlinks + PPC → Semrush
• Produce content fast with AI → Frase

2. What’s your monthly content volume?

• 1-10 articles/mo → Frase ($45) or Surfer Essential ($89)
• 10-30 articles/mo → Surfer Scale ($129)
• 30+ articles/mo → Frase Team ($115)

3. Are you solo or managing a team?

• Solo → Surfer or Frase (cheaper, focused)
• Agency (5+ clients) → Semrush (need competitor research, rank tracking, client reports)

4. What’s your SEO maturity?

• Beginner (just want content to rank) → Surfer (easiest to follow)
• Intermediate (building a content system) → Frase (speed + AI)
• Advanced (full SEO stack: content + backlinks + technical) → Semrush

5. What’s your budget?

• Under $50/mo → Frase Basic ($45)
• $50-$150/mo → Surfer Essential ($89) or Scale ($129)
• $150+/mo → Semrush Guru ($249) if you need the full suite

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What I Actually Use

My stack:

• Surfer SEO Scale ($129/mo): For content optimization. Non-negotiable. The Content Score is the best ranking predictor I’ve found.
• Semrush Pro ($129/mo, shared team account): For keyword research and competitor analysis. I don’t use 80% of the features, but the keyword tool alone is worth it.

Total cost: $258/mo

I don’t use Frase because Surfer’s precision matters more than Frase’s speed for my use case (quality > volume). But if I were producing 50+ posts/month, I’d swap to Frase.

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The Honest Recommendation

If you can only afford one tool:

• You’re a solo blogger → Surfer SEO Essential ($89/mo). It delivers the highest ranking ROI per euro. Pair it with free keyword research (Google Keyword Planner, Answer The Public).

• You’re an agency → Semrush Guru ($249/mo). Clients expect competitive reports, rank tracking, and backlink audits. Surfer doesn’t provide this.

• You’re a content-focused startup → Frase Basic ($45/mo). Speed matters when you’re publishing 30+ posts/month. The AI writing saves 10-15 hours/week.

If you can afford two tools:

• Semrush (keyword research) + Surfer (content optimization). This is my stack. Semrush finds the opportunities, Surfer executes the ranking.

Don’t buy all three. You’re overlapping on content optimization and wasting money.

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The 2026 Reality

SEO in 2026 isn’t about “tricks” or “hacks.” It’s about engineering ranking through data.

Surfer, Semrush, and Frase all give you the data. The question is which workflow fits your business model:

• Precision ranking? Surfer.
• Enterprise SEO? Semrush.
• Speed + AI? Frase.

And if you’re still writing content in 2026 without optimization tools, you’re guessing. Google rewards relevance, structure, and depth—these tools reverse-engineer what “relevance” means for each keyword.

The cost is €45-250/month. The ROI is 10-100x if you actually publish and optimize consistently.

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Try them yourself:

• Semrush (7-day free trial + $10 bonus for trials via affiliates)
• Surfer SEO (7-day money-back guarantee)
• Frase (Free trial: 5 articles)

Disclosure: Affiliate links. I earn commissions. I use Surfer and Semrush in production and only recommend based on 6 months of ranking data.